A Forever Hidden Truth
by GamerFan369
Summary: "Until you learn to love another, and she loves you back in return, you will remain a hideous beast, a form that truly reflects your heart." Who knew one wrong word could cause so much heartache? A Beauty and the Beast AU. OumaSai.
1. Once Upon A Time

**Hello everyone! I am GamerFan369, and welcome to** ** _A Forever Hidden Truth_** **! This is an OumaSai fanfiction that's been in my head for a while now, and I've finally gotten the chance to write it down!**

 **I'm not quite sure what to write in this author's note, so I'll tell you right here and right now that this is simply being written for my own enjoyment. It currently has no updating schedule other than when I'm done with a chapter. I'm writing this mostly to satisfy my inner fangirl. But hey, if you like it and want more, simply tell me. Even though I'm writing this for myself, I would be happy if other people liked it!**

 **A couple more things before we start. Personally, I prefer the Japanese spelling of the characters' names opposed to the English (for example, spelling Kokichi's last Ouma instead of Oma), so that's the way you will be seeing character's names spelled.**

 **Places will also have Japanese names, just to keep with the feel of things.**

 **Finally, I have no idea how to use Japanese suffixes (like –chan and –san) so I'm just not going to be using them. I'm sorry if some of you like the suffixes, but I'd rather not use them at all than use them incorrectly.**

 **So, with all that out of the way, sit back, relax, and enjoy the first chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I, in no way, have any rights to** ** _Danganronpa_** **. The series is owned by** ** _Spike Chunsoft_** **and they have all the rights to it.**

* * *

Once upon a time, as all fairy tales start, there was a local village boy named Shuuichi Saihara. He lived in the town of Kioku with his Uncle Souji. He moved to the town when he was young because his parents thought it would be a better environment for him to grow up in. There, Shuuichi worked as his Uncle's apprentice, training to become a great detective just like his relative was. And, if his Uncle's words were anything to go by, he was learning fast and was a natural born investigator.

The town was very accepting of him too. From the first day he moved in, they welcomed him with open arms. They were always there to help in case Shuuichi or anyone else needed it, and it was very easy for the boy to make friends with a whole number of people.

All in all, Shuuichi's life was pretty great. He had amazing friends, a good job, and a kind and safe town to live in. He couldn't have wanted anything more.

However, something more is exactly what he got.

* * *

"Shuuichi!"

Said boy jumped at his name being called and the front door being thrown open. Luckily, Shuuichi was the only one home at the moment since his Uncle had to go away for business, so he was the only person bothered by the noise. Quickly straightening his clothes out and swallowing the bit of breakfast he was still chewing, Shuuichi turned to the source of the sound. "Kaito? What are you doing here?"

Kaito Momota, Shuuichi's best friend since he first came to town, grinned and leaned against the door frame. "Did you forget? We're meeting Maki Roll at the school to practice for the play."

The detective raised an eyebrow. "No, I didn't forget. But it's only nine o'clock. We don't need to be there for another hour."

Kaito shrugged. "There's nothing wrong with being early to something. The early bird gets the worm, after all."

"...You just want to spend more time with Maki, don't you?"

The only answer he got was a grin.

This was normal behavior for Kaito as of late. He, Shuuichi, and Maki Harukawa have all been best friends for the longest time, so it would make sense that the three of them would hang out a lot. However, ever since Kaito and Maki became a thing...well...let's just say Shuuichi has gotten used to waking up at early hours in the morning. Why the purple haired boy didn't just go to Maki by himself, the detective didn't have the slightest clue.

Shuuichi sighed after a moment. "Fine. Just let me finish my breakfast first and we can go." Then, within ten minutes, both boys were out the door.

* * *

Walking down the streets of town, the two friends made small talk.

"Did you hear that Angie is coming back from her travels next week?"

"Apparently there have been a large amount of thefts the next town over."

"I saw that Miu is working on another weather invention. I hope this one works just as good, or even better, than her last. It would be nice to have an even better weather indicator, not that the one she already made isn't good or anything."

These non-important conversations continued on for the remainder of their journey to the school. Maki currently worked there to be able to get some extra money for her dad. Her job was being a teacher's assistant to the little kids. She said she hated it, but it was easy to tell that she got a little enjoyment from the job.

"There it is." Kaito stopped their conversation by pointing to the small, wooden building. The outside looked rather bland, but Shuuichi knew that the inside was anything but. Multiple drawings, hand prints, and other art and messes from kids throughout the years littered the walls. The teacher seemed to have just given up on trying to clean it all.

With a nod, the two walked up to the door, but then stopped, attempting to hear what was going on inside before actually going in. They learned from experience that this was usually a good thing to do.

They could hear the muffled voice of Maki and nothing else. _Must be story time,_ Shuuichi thought. It was the only time he ever heard those kids be quiet. The detective turned to Kaito. "Should we go in?"

His friend shrugged. "I don't see why not."

Quietly opening the door, as not to disturb anyone and get the kids hyped up by accident, the two best friends slipped inside the room and shut the door behind them.

After a quick survey of the room (and a not so quick glare from Maki) the two found an empty area near the back of the group of one dozen children. Moving to the side, Kaito leaned against the wall and Shuuichi simply stood with his arms crossed. They didn't see the teacher, so they guessed that meant she had to step out for a moment and she had left Maki in charge.

Tuning into the story, Shuuichi immediately deduced that it was almost finished. After all, it was a tale he and everyone else in the town had heard many a times before. It would be impossible not to know it by now.

"And just like that, the witch was gone, leaving behind an enraged beast and a handful of ghostly servants. The last thing the group ever heard from her were these words, which would stay fresh in their mind for all eternity: Until you learn to love another, and she loves you back in return, you will remain a hideous beast, a form that truly reflects your heart."

Then Maki stopped, sitting back in her chair and letting out a little sigh. Most of the kids applauded, but a few, mostly the girls, looked around in fear.

"I don't want to love a beast!" one of the girls shouted.

Maki sighed again and got up. Walking over to the child that had screamed, she crouched down, put her hand atop the girl's head, and gave it an affectionate nuzzle, a soft smile gracing Maki's features. "You don't have to marry a beast if you don't want to, Ayane."

She shivered. "I don't?"

"No. Whoever you decide to marry is completely up to you." That seemed to calm the girl down. She looked a lot more relaxed now. "Besides," Maki continued, "it was just a story. There is no beast."

"Yeah!" one of the boys cheered, jumping up. "And even if there was one, Maki would just defeat it!"

"Yeah!"

"She totally would!"

"She would punch it into a pile of mush!"

"No, she would punch it so hard; it would be va- vaderize-"

"Vaporized?" Maki supplied.

The boy nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, that! It would be vaporized into nothing!"

With that declaration, most of the kids got up and started imitating Maki killing a monster. With a laugh, even Ayane joined in. Maki couldn't help but chuckle softly at the sight, even though she knew she was going to have to calm them down in a minute or two.

"See, Maki Roll. You really do love this job!" Kaito and Shuuichi made their way up to their friend and the former slung an arm around her in an affectionate half hug.

Maki's face immediately darkened and she turned around to glare at the two, pushing the arm off her in the process. "No, I do not. And what are you two doing here? I said practice was at ten. It's only nine-twenty."

Shuuichi sighed. "I said that too. Blame Kaito. He was the one who made me come right now."

Both turned to look at Kaito and said male grinned sheepishly. "What? Is it wrong to want to spend time with my girlfriend?"

"If you really want to spend time with me, you can help me take care of these kids."

Kaito sighed. "Okay. Fair is fair."

The female turned to Shuuichi. "That includes you too."

Shuuichi's eyes widened. The last time he helped Maki with the children, his hair had barely survived. The clump he lost had just finally grown back too…

"But-" he tried to say in protest, but another of Maki's death glares stopped him. He sighed once more and then put on a small smile. "Fine, I'll be happy to help."

Her face calming, Maki nodded. "Good." She turned her back on the two and made her way towards the chaos happening in the center of the room. "Okay everyone, get some paper and a pencil and we'll start a new activity."

With the chattering only increasing, a dozen kids made their way over to a cabinet and began rummaging through it, knocking down books, chairs, and jars (thankfully none of them broke) in the process.

Seeing the mess the children were making from a task as simple as getting paper and a pencil, Shuuichi and Kaito looked at each other. "This is going to be the longest forty minutes of our lives, isn't it?" Shuuichi asked with a nervous chuckle.

The purple haired boy rubbed his neck. "Yep. But hey, look on the bright side! At least we can help each other out and have some fun with the kids."

The sound of something finally shattering made the two rethink the latter part of Kaito's statement.

* * *

 **Well, that's the end of the first chapter! Here's a bit more information in case any of you were confused:**

 **The setting of this is medieval times-ish, except it has the rules of current day society. What I mean by that is, for example, both girls and boys can go to school, but people still ride horses and live in tiny cottages. They also all wear medieval-ish clothing (I'll probably go into more detail about that later). However, the era _does_ have a tad bit of advancement from what might have been seen in real life in that time period (which is why I say medieval times** ** _-ish_** **). You'll see what I mean later on.**

 **Yes, I did give Maki a father in this. It's an adopted father, but a father nonetheless. I couldn't really write her the way I wanted to unless she had a father. Someone needed to teach her how to fight and be able to survive, and I just don't think she could have gotten as far as she could in that aspect by teaching herself to fight. I hope you guys don't mind.**

 **And that's the entire information dump I have! Some of it may sound confusing now, but hopefully it will make sense later on. I just couldn't write the story the way I wanted to if I stuck to the actual rules of the time period, so I hope you all can just roll with it.**

 **Well, I hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter! If you did like it, please follow, favorite, and perhaps leave a review. Those always make my day! Again, I am just writing this for my own pleasure, but if you do like it, that just makes writing this even better!**

 **I have no idea when I will update this again, so we'll just have to wait and see.**

 **Until then…**

 **Peace!** ** _GamerFan369_**


	2. Play Practice

**Hello everyone and welcome back to** ** _A Forever Hidden Truth_** **! Thank you to everyone who read and followed this story. It really means a lot to me.**

 **Well, without further ado, here's chapter two (hey, that rhymed)!**

 **Disclaimer: I, in no way, have any rights to** ** _Danganronpa_** **. The series is owned by** ** _Spike Chunsoft_** **and they have all rights to it.**

* * *

By the time Shuuichi, Maki, and Kaito were relieved of their duties by the teacher (the woman came back at some point, but none of them were quite sure when because of all the chaos), the three of them were basically walking corpses. They staggered out the door, but took no time in falling to the ground outside the school so that they could rest their legs.

"I don't..." Kaito breathed deeply, "I don't remember them being...being that rowdy!"

"They're usually not that bad in the morning," Maki said with a sigh. She wasn't breathing as hard as her two other friends, but she had years of training to thank for that.

"I...think...we just have bad luck," Shuuichi responded, trying desperately to fill his lungs with air.

There was silence for a couple of minutes after that. The group of three just sat on the ground outside the school, breathing heavily and letting the world go on around them. It was a welcome sort of silence (if you could even call it that with all the hustle and bustle going on around them) that had an atmosphere that no one wanted to break. However, the peace couldn't last forever. Everything comes to an end at some point.

Maki stretched and got up, adjusting the bag on her shoulder, and looked down at the two boys still on the ground. "Come on. I only have two hours until I have to go back and I want to get in as much practice as possible." Waiting a moment for the two to get up and straighten out their tunics, Maki then lead the way to the town meeting house, intent on using their remaining time wisely.

The town meeting house, where the town held monthly meetings (the name of the building explained its purpose well), was the oldest building in Kioku. Usually, meetings about how the town was run and any challenges coming up were held in a castle, but since their town didn't have one, they settled for a regular, old building instead. In fact, no town in the whole kingdom had a castle, and the area contained more than ten towns. Why none of the towns had a castle, no one really knew, but everyone adapted to the situation and just worked with it

"Old building" wasn't an exaggeration. As soon as the group entered the giant cottage, the floor immediately trembled and creaked under them. The three winced slightly. They knew it wouldn't break, after all, there had been more than one hundred people in this room once and the building had held, but that didn't mean that they couldn't worry about the worse possible situation.

The walls weren't any better. They were covered in mold and spider webs could be seen on the windows and higher areas that no one could reach. The building did get cleaned, just not very often.

The roof was probably the best part of the meeting house. The citizens had to redo it last year since it had caved in during a storm (thankfully no one was in the building at the time), so it was sturdy and clean, at least compared to the rest of the building.

Once they were inside, Maki made her way to the giant table in the middle of the room. "Okay, let's get this moved and then we can start."

Shuuichi and Kaito nodded in agreement, moving in to grab the chairs around the table so they would be able to move the slab of wood. Once those were placed in a corner, the three worked together to push the table against a wall and out of the way. With those simple actions done, the setup was complete.

Walking back to the middle of the room, Maki patted her bag. "I have the scripts in here if you need them, but you should have been practicing at home, so I'm hoping you don't need to rely on them."

Kaito laughed and gave his girlfriend a thumbs-up. "I'm sure we'll be fine, Maki Roll. Shuuichi and I have been practicing all month. If my sidekick knows his lines, then so do I!"

Shuuichi nodded in agreement. "I think we're all set, Maki."

Said girl sighed. "Good, because we only have two fortnights left until the play and it needs to be perfect. So," Maki threw her bag to the side and straightened out her red tunic, "if we're ready to start, let's go."

The play was something the group of them had been working on for the past two months. Every year, right before winter hit, their town put on a play for the children to celebrate the ending harvest. This is the second year that the trio and their friends had been put in charge of the production.

With Miu and Angie working on the set, and Tenko and Ryoma writing the script and spreading word of the play, that just left Shuuichi, Maki, and Kaito to be the actors. The others had some small parts here and there, but the group of three was doing most of the acting. They had to admit that it wasn't the most amazing thing in the world (after all, they were just a couple of teens, not professionals), but they thought they did an okay job with what they had at their disposal.

The play itself is a story about a group of travelers who happen upon a sealed shut book. With nothing much else to do, they set off on a journey to open said book while overcoming any challenges that come their way. It's a cliché story with an obvious moral and ending, but again, it was written by two teenagers, so what else could be expected? Besides, the kids usually loved the cheesy stories.

However, because the story was sub-par, Maki made it her solemn duty to make sure the acting was _not._

"Come on, Hanae, we can't give up. We came this far, if we quit now, we'd be throwing away everything we worked for." Kaito ran up and grabbed Maki's hand, but she promptly pulled away.

"No, Ginjiro," Maki said calmly with a sigh. "I'm done with this. We've been to four different kingdoms, countless forests, and have battled waves of unending monsters. I don't want to do this anymore."

Shuuichi walked up to the girl and raised a hand as if to touch her shoulder, but decided against it. "Hanae, please. Let's just think about this."

Maki shook her head. "There's nothing to think about, Kazu. I'm done with this. If you want to continue, feel free, but I'm going back to the last inn we stayed at. Come find me when you're ready to make our way home." With those last words, the woman turned around and walked to the other side of the room, "leaving" the two alone.

Shuuichi and Kaito looked at each other. "Should we go after her?" the dark, navy haired boy asked less than minute later.

Kaito sighed. "No. Not yet at least. Let's just give her some time." He shook his head and then took out the sealed book. "Meanwhile, let's finish this quest and finally open this thing."

Reluctantly, and with one last glance in the direction Maki went, the two turned around and walked the opposite way, effectively "leaving the stage."

The trio was quiet for a moment before Maki finally broke the silence. "Okay, I thought you two did really well with that scene."

Kaito grinned widely. "Thanks! And I thought you did good, too, Maki Roll. However, maybe add just a _bit_ more emotion into your delivery. If you do that, you would be amazing!"

The teacher's assistant sighed. "I know. I'm not the best at…well, _feelings_ though."

With a laugh, Kaito walked over to Maki and gave her a bear hug. "What? Of course you are. Just act like you do whenever you're talking to Shuuichi or I and you should be perfectly fine!"

Maki spluttered and blushed at her boyfriend suddenly hugging her; however, she didn't pull away at first. Shuuichi couldn't help but chuckle at this.

Sooner rather than later though, the girl _did_ free herself from the purple haired man's grasp. "Okay," she stated, straightening out her clothes and going back into business mode. "That's enough fun and games. Let's get back to work. We'll continue with Act Two, Scene Four."

And just like that, practice continued on.

* * *

Two hours later, Maki, Kaito, and Shuuichi were walking out of the old meeting house (Maki finally let Kaito keep his arm around her shoulders) and the three were chatting lightly. However, they were heading back towards the school when their conversation was interrupted by the fact that Maki noticed that everyone in town seemed rather…on edge. They were still doing their jobs and going about their daily lives, but something just seemed off.

Stopping in her tracks and removing Kaito's arm from around her (much to the boy's disappointment), Maki eyed the many groups of people whispering to each other and looking around warily. "What is going on?" she whispered to the others.

Shuuichi could see that something was wrong too. The town wasn't immune to gossip, in fact, it was a daily occurrence, but everyone around them just seemed too tense and too worried.

"I don't know," Kaito muttered, looking around at the town's folk, also sensing the unease.

"I'll go ask someone," the detective offered, making his way towards the first available person he saw, which actually happened to be Ryoma. "Ryoma!" Shuuichi called out.

The small man turned around at his name being called and he chuckled slightly, putting the box he was holding down. "Shuuichi. How are you doing? Is the play coming around nicely?"

Shuuichi gave a small smile and nodded. "Yes, I think everything is going well, at least on the actors' part." Then his smile fell. "I do have a question for you though. What is up with everyone today?" The teen gestured to the small crowds around them. "They all seem so tense and worried. Did something happen?"

Ryoma sighed. "I guess you could say that." He paused for a second to nod to Kaito and Maki, who had just joined them, then continued talking. "Long story short, I have good news and bad news, Shuuichi."

Said man felt his heart rate pick up at that. "What is it?" he asked warily.

Another sigh. "Well, the bad news is that Oki has run out of space in their prison, so they had to resort to bringing some of their criminals here. That's why everyone is on edge. The first criminal just came in today."

 _Oki has run out of room in their prison? Crime must really be up,_ the detective deduced. Oki was the biggest town in this kingdom. It had a thousand citizens, a giant playhouse, a beautiful garden, and a huge prison (although that last fact usually wasn't the reason why people visited the area). So, when the town was sending criminals to other places because they ran out of space, that meant something.

"Ran out of space?" Maki asked. "How is that possible?"

"It's not a surprise you haven't heard yet. We just got the information today since we haven't had anyone come from Oki in awhile, but more than half of the prison got burned down in a fire. They're just sending criminals to other towns until they can rebuild the place."

 _Oh,_ Shuuichi thought, a bit surprised. _That makes much more sense now._

"Okay, with the bad news out of the way, what's the good news?" Kaito asked Ryoma.

The man nodded and turned towards the detective. "Well, it's good news for Shuuichi more than anyone else."

Shuuichi raised an eyebrow at this, confused, until what Ryoma said next made his heart jump in joy.

"Your Uncle's finally back in town."

* * *

 **And that's the end of chapter two! If you liked it, please review, follow, and favorite. Those always make my day!**

 **I hope to see you all again in the next chapter!**

 **Until then…**

 **Peace! _G_** ** _amerFan369_**


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